Poetic Lenses: Our Fifteenth Annual Look at Debut Poetry
Ten debut poets published in 2019, including Camonghne Felix and Jake Skeets, share their advice, inspiration, and path to publication.
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Genre: Poetry
Ahsahta Press Closes Its Doors
After more than forty years of publishing innovative poetry, Ahsahta Press will shutter in June 2020.
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Poison Pen Reading Series
The Poison Pen Reading Series holds events in a bar called the Poison Girl Cocktail Lounge. The series has been going for twelve years, just a little longer than Houston VIP Slam (which I featured last week), but functions in a very different way. The series brings three writers together who read on the outside patio of the lounge. Audience members get to relax in a space under the stars and listen to literary works from writers from Houston and beyond.
The readings are usually hosted by Scott Repass, one of the owners of the lounge, and start at 8:00 PM on every third Thursday of the month. The featured readers vary for each event, but most times, audience members will get the opportunity to hear from at least one writer from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program, a writer from the Houston literary community, and a visiting writer from outside of Houston. Writers share work from all genres including poetry, fiction, and nonfiction.
I have been to many Poison Pen readings and have had the pleasure of being a featured reader, the last time was this past July when I was honored to share the stage with poet Natasha Carrizosa and fiction writer Robert Liddell. The readings are always jam-packed, standing room only in most cases, so if you plan to attend, get there early for a drink and to find a good seat for the reading. It’s worth it.
The Poison Pen Reading Series at Poison Girl in Houston. Lupe Mendez is the literary outreach coordinator for Poets & Writers in Houston. Contact him at Houston@pw.org or on Twitter, @houstonpworg.
Speaking Into a Shell
“Often discussions of persona poetry focus on its potential for cultivating empathy, inhabiting another’s perspective, but I have always felt that, inevitably, one circles back upon oneself,” writes Jennifer S. Cheng in Literary Hub about her second collection, Moon: Letters, Maps, Poems (Tarpaulin Sky Press, 2018). “Persona poetry is often compared to wearing a mask, but to me it is like speaking into a shell.” In her book, Cheng writes a series of persona poems in the voice of Chang’E, the woman who floats up to the moon in Chinese folktales. Think of a mythical figure or other fictionalized character who resonates with you, and write a short series of poems that explores this person’s inner self. Allow your own voice to intermingle and draw you toward imagining where your identities might overlap.
Tommy Pico Reads From Feed
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“I would LOVE to imagine / being alive in five / years but I have these bones u know? / and just like that I’m writing / a poem / a poem / a poem / again.” In this 2018 video from the Poetry Center at San Francisco State University, Tommy Pico reads an excerpt from Feed (Tin House Books, 2019), the fourth book in the Teebs tetralogy of book-length poems.
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From Miami to Detroit
There are so many writers in Detroit that I am discovering. This week I want to share a conversation I recently had with local poet and editor Jeni De La O.
Jeni founded Relato:Detroit, a bilingual community storytelling series, and Poems in the Park, an acoustic poetry reading series in historic Lafayette Park. A first-generation Cuban American who grew up in Miami, Jeni came to writing from humble beginnings. “My mom grabbed some scraps of fabric from a dress she’d made me, cut up a cereal box and went at it with her hot glue gun to make me a journal,” she says about what drove her to write as a youngster.
Jeni moved from Miami to Detroit about ten years ago. “When I got to Detroit, the people felt like home, and that feeling of home lets you breathe,” says Jeni. “This city puts life and movement and connection into your writing in a way I haven’t felt or seen elsewhere.” Some of her favorite venues and events in Detroit include the Secret Society of Twisted Storytellers, the Brain Candy series held at Green Brain Comics, and the East Side Reading Series
I asked Jeni if she could put out a call to action to Detroit writers, what would it be? In chorus with many of the local writers I have spoken with, Jeni suggested a large gathering of literary artists or a citywide poetry festival. I truly think that there are already writers beginning to lay the groundwork for something of that magnitude in years to come. I am glad to have a voice and to highlight voices in this growing conversation.
Jeni De La O. Justin Rogers is the literary outreach coordinator for Poets & Writers in Detroit. Contact him at Detroit@pw.org or on Twitter, @Detroitpworg.
Craft Capsule: Revising the Archive
Cameron Awkward-Rich discusses turning archival research—traces of the past—into poems.
Orion in the Wilderness
The Orion in the Wilderness retreat, cosponsored by the Omega Institute, was held from March 8 to March 14 at the American Museum of Natural History’s Southwestern Research Station in Cave Creek Canyon in Portal, Arizona, surrounded by the Chiricahua Mountains, known for their abundant bird life and hiking trails. The retreat included workshops, readings, lectures, manuscript consultations with faculty, presentations on local ecology and lore, and optional birding and hikes for poets, fiction writers, and nonfiction writers.
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CONFERENCE
Ignore Event Date Field?:
yes
Event Date:
April 21, 2025
Rolling Admissions:
ignore
Application Deadline:
April 21, 2025
Financial Aid?:
no
Financial Aid Application Deadline:
April 21, 2025
Free Admission:
no
Contact Information:
Orion in the Wilderness, Orion Magazine, 187 Main Street, Great Barrington, MA 01230.
Contact City:
Portal
Contact State:
AZ
Country:
US
Upcoming Contest Deadlines
As we enter the last month of 2019, the time is right to submit to contests with a deadline of December 15. These poetry, fiction, and nonfiction awards include opportunities to attend a residency in upstate New York and to have your work reviewed by a literary agency. Most offer a prize of $1,000 or more.
Center for Book Arts Letterpress Poetry Chapbook Competition: A prize of $500 and letterpress publication by the Center for Book Arts is given annually for a poetry chapbook. The winner will also receive an additional $500 to give a reading with the contest judge at the Center for Book Arts in New York City in fall 2020, and a weeklong residency at the Winter Shakers program at the Millay Colony for the Arts in Austerlitz, New York. Entry fee: $30.
Commonwealth Club of California Book Awards: Five prizes are given annually for a poetry collection, a book of fiction, a first book of fiction, a book of creative nonfiction, and a book of fiction or nonfiction that relates to California published during the previous year. Books written by authors residing in California are eligible. Entry fee: none.
F(r)iction Short Story Contest: A prize of $1,000 is given three times a year for a short story. Entry fee: $15.
LitMag Virginia Woolf Award for Short Fiction: A prize of $3,500 and publication in LitMag is given annually for a short story. A second-place prize of $1,000 will also be given. The winners will have their work reviewed by Sobel Weber Associates literary agency. The editors will judge. Entry fee: $20.
Mid-American Review Poetry and Fiction Contests: Two prizes of $1,000 each and publication in Mid-American Review are given annually for a poem (the James Wright Poetry Award) and a short story (the Sherwood Anderson Fiction Award). Entry fee: $10.
Silverfish Review Press Gerald Cable Book Award: A prize of $1,000, publication by Silverfish Review Press, and 25 author copies is given annually for a first poetry collection. Entry fee: $25, which includes a copy of the winning book.
Willow Books Literature Awards: Two prizes of $1,000 each and publication by Willow Books are given annually for a book of fiction and a book of creative nonfiction by writers of color. Entry fee: $25.
Visit the contest websites for complete guidelines, and check out the Grants & Awards database and Submission Calendar for more contests in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction.
For Estefani
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“Elephant on an orange line, underneath a yellow circle / meaning sun. / 6 green, vertical lines, with color all from the top / meaning flowers.” In this animated short film for the TED-Ed “There’s a Poem for That” series, Aracelis Girmay reads her poem “For Estefani Lora, Third Grade, Who Made Me a Card” from her collection Teeth (Curbstone Press, 2007).
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